It was on September 3 that Riego’s party proceeded to the theatre after a great banquet, and there broke into a couplet composed in Cadiz--the “Trágala” (“Swallow It,” meaning the Constitution). Ferdinand strove to counteract this public anti-monarchical exhibition by secret agents following him with cries of “Viva el Rey” as he passed to and from the palace. Fresh friction arose between the monarch and the Ministry when the law which had been approved by the Cortes for the reform of the convents was brought to the King for his sanction. For, supported by the wish of the Pope, conveyed by the Nuncio, Ferdinand determined to take no step to check the fanaticism which he himself so strongly favoured. The people were furious at this blow to their hopes for progress, and when all was prepared for the departure of the King and Queen to the Escorial on October 25, his secretaries told him that a plan was laid by his enemies to prevent his departure till he had passed the decree to check the power of the friars and prevent their inquisitorial courses. The King was enraged at this announcement, and he hastily decided to leave Madrid that very minute. So he left with the Queen and the Infantas at eleven o’clock in the morning, and brilliant illuminations and rejoicings marked the evening of Their Majesties’ return to the Palace of San Lorenzo. Shut up in the Escorial, Ferdinand devoured his rage in secret, and when the day came for closing the Congress, he excused himself from attendance on the plea of a severe cold. It was on November 21 that the Court returned to Madrid. But at some distance from the capital crowds of people met Their Majesties singing the “Trágala”; and when Ferdinand, as usual, went to the window of the palace to see the march past of the regiments in the city, he was met by a storm of frantic cries and threatening gesticulations from the crowds of people assembled in the Plaza del Oriente. The King was about to turn away with an imprecation from such a scene, when he caught sight of a child being held up above the sea of angry faces, and a look of horror came over his face as the populace pointed to the little boy, crying, “Lacy! Lacy!” For by this name he knew that the child was that of the unhappy General Lacy, the leader of the victory over the French in the Mancha, but he had met a secret and violent death at Majorca after the failure of his _pronunciamento_ in favour of the Constitution had led to his plot in Catalonia in 1817. The King stood horror-struck when the cries of “Viva Lacy’s son!” and “Viva his father’s avenger!” filled the air, but he kept his place till the defile of the regiment was over. Then the King turned back into the salon with a face which showed that he realized the portentous nature of the movement he had witnessed.